


You Don't Have to See Me

by LadyM_17



Series: Whumptober 2020 [7]
Category: Lab Rats: Elite Force (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Invasion of Privacy, Kidnapping, Panic Attacks, Psychological Torture, Public Humiliation, Self-Hatred, Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:01:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26884051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyM_17/pseuds/LadyM_17
Summary: No one had told Chase that Sebastian was out on parole and he didn't even have time to process this information before Sebastian was violently shoved back into their lives.
Relationships: Bree Davenport & Chase Davenport, Kaz (Mighty Med & Lab Rats: Elite Force) & Sebastian (Lab Rats), Sebastian (Lab Rats) & Bree Davenport, Sebastian (Lab Rats) & Chase Davenport
Series: Whumptober 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948384
Comments: 9
Kudos: 29
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	You Don't Have to See Me

**Author's Note:**

> This one hurts, so please please please pay attention to the content warnings and take care of yourselves.
> 
> Prompt: Day 7: I've Got You [Enemy to Caretaker]
> 
> Content Warnings: Kidnapping, Light Physical Violence, Mental/Psychological Torture*, Self-Hate, Invasion of Privacy**, Humiliation**, Panic Attacks  
> Please tell me if you think I've missed anything and please please be careful with this one. Take care of yourselves and know you are all beautiful humans. 
> 
> *I don't know if torture is the right word for it but it's the one I'm using  
> **More details for these with spoilers in the End Notes

After the events of the Bionic Rebellion, Chase did everything he could to scrub the thoughts of Sebastian from his mind. It helped that people did try to not mention the boy around him, but of course, that led to now where no one had bothered to tell him that Sebastian was out of prison. Or, at least Chase assumed he was out of prison because here he was, working in a coffee shop, taking orders and laughing with coworkers who probably didn’t know that the hipster trading barbs with them had been in prison for trying to take over the world with bionics he used to have.

“How can I…” Sebastian trailed off as Chase made his way to the front of the line. The two stared at each other, neither sure what to say.

One of Sebastian’s coworkers hit his arm. “How can I help you?” Sebastian said, finally.

Chase gave his drink order, all the while watching Sebastian for any signs of hostility.

“And what’s the name for that?”

Chase blinked. “Chase.” He raised his eyebrows. “Surely you remember me.”

Sebastian glanced towards his coworkers and sighed. “Yeah, I do. Your order will be up in a moment.”

Chase walked to where others were waiting and his bionic hearing caught the conversation one of Sebastian’s coworkers was having with Sebastian.

“One cute customer and you forget how to talk?”

“Shut up!”

“Relax, he can’t hear us.”

Sebastian shook his head. “I don’t think he’s cute.”

“Sure you don’t.”

When Chase got his drink there was a sticky note on it.

_I wasn’t sure if you wanted to address the past. I’m on parole now, if you haven’t noticed. If you want to talk, I’ll leave my number, but no pressure. We can let the past stay dead and you never have to see me again, that works too._

_123-456-789_

_P.S. Good job saving the city._

Chase stared at the post-it before throwing it into the trash can, of course, he’d already memorized the number, but how dare he. How dare Sebastian just show up, even though technically Chase came to his place of work, like everything was fine and that last time they’d been in the same room he hadn’t tried to kill them all? Like he hadn’t tried to take over the world?

Chase was pretty much fuming by the time he reached the Tower, so lost in his own thoughts he didn’t even notice the party in the kitchen before Bree called him over. “Chase! Look who’s shown up!”

And speak of the devil, Sebastian was standing in his kitchen, with Bree under his arm and Kaz marveling over him.

“Chase! Look at this guy! He’s like a cooler you!” 

Chase’s head was already doing the math, calculating any possible way Sebastian could’ve changed clothes and got here before, even if he’d left right after Chase: he found none.

“Sebastian!” Chase put his hand out to shake. “Where’d you find him?” he asked Bree.

“Well, I was out for a run in the park and stumbled on him, he looked a bit worn out so I figured I’d bring him home.” And then she giggled.

Bree didn’t giggle too often, usually just around crushes, and Chase knew she wouldn’t giggle for Sebastian, not after what had happened last time.

He summoned his laser bo and pointed it at Sebastian’s throat. "Who are you?”

“Chase, what’re you doing?” Skylar asked, tensing for a fight.

“You know, I just saw Sebastian… at a coffee shop… in different clothing, and I know my sister.” He turned to Bree. “You’re not her.”

Bree smirked. “You’re smarter than last time.” She shifted and in her place stood Reese.

Sebastian similarly melted away into Riker.

Chase lunged and a fight broke out between the Elite Force and the shapeshifters. Chase shoved Riker into Kaz and went to enact one of the Tower’s newest security measures: Turbo Freeze.

Quickly the temperature dropped, approaching freezing fast. It was far from comfortable for the Elite Force, but for the shifters it weakened them immensely, ending the fight quickly with the two shifters stuck in a freezer.

“What do we do with them?” Kaz asked.

“We get some coats, and we find out what happened to Bree.”

* * *

Sebastian hadn’t been too surprised to run into Chase. He had known that Chase was in the city, of course, but he hadn’t thought Chase had wanted to talk to him, and based on Chase’s reactions Sebastian had probably been right to assume that.

Of course, last time they’d seen each other Sebastian had manipulated him and attempted to, well not kill, but at least incapacitate him, but if Sebastian was honest he didn't really want to talk to Chase, well he did. He wanted to apologize, to make him laugh like he used to, but he didn't want to reveal all he had done to his new friends, well friends was a strong word, coworkers who didn't hate him was more accurate. But it wasn't up to him, he knew that and if Chase decided that he wanted to talk to Sebastian, Sebastian would gratefully comply, and if Chase wanted to tell all of his coworkers what Sebastian had done, turn them all against him... well, Chase would be in the right to do that too, after all the things that Sebastian had done to him it was better than he deserved.

 _Stop it, Sebastian._ A voice piped up in his head. _You do not deserve any harm or destruction._ It sounded suspiciously like his therapist. His therapist would probably agree with the voice and Sebastian knew he was meant to as well, but it was taking him some time. 

Prison, for all it's, well, let's say, discomforts, had been forced into therapy before he had been allowed parole, and that did a lot of good. He was still angry, still had too many memories with a crucial figure missing, still didn't know what he did next, but his anger was no longer directed at the original Bionic humans and his therapist said that was an improvement. Sebastian thought it was too, but he was still figuring out where the anger was directed to, though, most days it ended up being directed at himself. His therapist said figuring out where the anger was coming from would take time. She was a kind woman, didn’t judge him when he told her the thoughts that lurked in the darkest corners of his mind. The ones of anger and hurt that burned like fire. She let him talk and waited patiently when his talking turned to sobbing because acknowledging those corners of his mind hurt.

When his shift ended, Sebastian said goodbye to his coworkers, tugged his beanie low over his ears, and left through the back door, only to run into a tall man dressed in black. “Sebastian?”  
“How do you know my name?” He touched his chest to ensure he had not left his name tag on.

“You ruined our plans.”

“What?” Sebastian backed up. He had no bionic abilities anymore, but he had a vague remembrance of how to fight, at least well enough to throw a punch and run.

“Don’t bother.” The man then disintegrated into particles, and Sebastian couldn’t punch particles. He flew backwards and hit a wall, he could feel the blood trickling down his head as he landed on the floor and the world went very dark.

When he woke up the first thing he zeroed in on was a very angry Bree, restrained by a plethora of various high tech restraints. He, himself, was only restrained by some rope and a very uncomfortable chair.

“You’re awake,” Bree commented, she didn’t sound too happy about it.

“Uhm… sorry?”

“What exactly are you apologizing for?”

“Well, see, I didn’t plan to ever have to talk to you or Chase if either of you weren’t up for it and now well this has kind of taken away that option hasn’t—“

“I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to see your pretty face, on the contrary, I kinda want to punch it.”

Sebastian nodded and focused on the floor. Angry Bree was not to be messed with, a lesson the particle man had obviously not learned. He stormed in with an older man behind him, holding a camera.

“Roman, Rodissius.” Bree glared at the two as they walked in. “What do you want with us?” Sebastian noted that she included him, even if she didn't like him at least she didn’t seem to be planning to leave him to fend for himself.

“I want my powers back,” the older man said.

Bree rolled her eyes. “We already told you that’s not going to happen! And even if we could do it, you are a literal supervillain, you’ve kinda lost the right to powers.”

“Don’t worry, Dad,” the younger one said, as he finished setting up the camera. “If they won’t give them, we’ll take them. For now,” he glanced at the two prisoners, ensuring they were in frame. “We just need to get Riker and Reese back.”

* * *

In the few hours they had tried to get any information on Bree’s whereabouts, all they had discovered is that Riker really hated when his ears got cold. So they were definitely not disappointed when they got a message from Roman and Rodissius. They were, however, surprised, when not only Bree showed up on the screen, but Sebastian too.

“Let’s make this quick,” Rodissius said, “You give me back my children, I’ll return your friends to you. If you give me back my powers you might even get them back unharmed.”

Sebastian suddenly burst out laughing, surprising everyone watching. “I’m sorry? You’re suggesting a prisoner exchange? With me? Oh, you really did not do your research.”

Rodissius turned around and stalked towards Sebastian. He knelt down to look the boy in the eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I mean the last time we saw each other we tried to kill each other and you think they’re going to give you someone valuable for me?” Sebastian laughed again. “God, I thought I was stupid when they removed my chip, but you- you’re even stupider.”

Rodissius did not take kindly to being called stupid, slapping Sebastian so hard that his chair actually tipped over, leaving Sebastian in a very awkward position; his body sagged towards the floor even as his bonds kept him attached to the chair, before returning to the camera.

“As I said, a prisoner for a prisoner, and with my powers you get…” he glanced at Sebastian with a bruising face, “prisoners that are not further harmed. If not, well, what kind of Elite Force would you be if you left a civilian in my hands?”

Another shout of laughter was heard from Sebastian before the camera went dark.

The Elite Force exchanged looks.

“Do we trade?” Oliver asked.

“Analyze the footage first,” Chase ordered. “If we can rescue them without giving up Reese and Riker, we do.”

“What if we can’t?” Skylar asked. “Do we just trade Riker for Bree? Or both for both?”

“Me?” Chase asked.

“You’re the one who knows Sebastian, do we leave him there?”

Chase shook his head. “We cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Turns out they didn’t need to cross that bridge, the shifters were not great when it came to hiding their location and in under an hour, they were heading towards the old tunnel system which apparently was their base, at least temporarily. It wasn’t too difficult to sneak into where they were holding the two.

Kaz went to free Sebastian as the rest of the team figured out how to free Bree.

“Did you take the prisoner exchange?” Sebastian sounded surprised at the possibility.

Kaz shook his head as he burned away the ropes. “No, they’re just bad at hiding their tracks.”

“Just like you’re bad at holding prisoners?”

Skylar pulled Bree to her feet, as the group turned to see Reese and Riker standing in the doorway.

“How did you get out?” Oliver asked.

Roman appeared behind his siblings. “Did you really think you could hold them?” he said, just as Riker said:

“Reese broke out.”

“Thank you! Finally, giving me the proper credit.”

“And now that we have you here,” Roman said, “We don’t plan on letting you leave.”

“Good luck keeping us here,” Chase said, “In case you haven’t noticed we outnumber you.”

“Well,” Reese paced towards the group. “Maybe we won’t keep all of you, I think we can let the pathetic Normo go.”

If they were going to let anyone go, it wasn’t going to be Sebastian. He couldn’t save them if he was the one set free, so Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Because I’m the pathetic one? If we’re going based off of patheticness, I think you should let Chase go, even I can do better than him.”

“Hey! We just saved you!” Chase yelled.

Reese rolled her eyes. “Sure, Sebastian. Keep trying to convince yourself of that, Sebastian, keep trying to convince them. But you forget, even if our father hasn’t read the research, we have. We know every little thing about you.” She grinned, as Sebastian froze, wondering what exactly she knew. “Everything you ever did on the island, you ever told anyone in prison, each interaction between you and your coworkers: the ones you’re lying to, and anything you ever told that little therapist of yours.” She tapped her head. “It’s all in here. So why don’t you drop the show of bravado, because I know everything.”

"You don't know shit." Sebastian wished his voice didn't sound so feeble.

"Don't I?" Reese smirked before shifting into a face Bree and Chase still saw in their nightmares, and one that had started to show up in Sebastian’s too: Krane.

His heart dropped, he wanted to look away but he couldn't move. He started to close his eyes, to try to turn away-

“Nuh-uh-uh, look at me, son." Sebastian didn't remember what Krane's voice sounded like, but this voice was so familiar it hurt and he hated it. He hated how he wanted to hear that voice praise him, how he wanted Krane to be proud of him, even when he knew what Krane wanted was so, so, wrong.

"I'm not your, son," Sebastian said, but he looked anyway, he couldn't disobey an order from that voice, he just couldn't. He'd already betrayed the man once. 

~~Krane~~ Reese grinned, as if she knew what was happening in his head. "You googled who he was, didn’t you, Sebastian? Wondered if maybe those dreams were him trying to communicate with you. Wondered maybe if you had been good enough, he would’ve succeeded; questioned if you wanted him to succeed, tsk, how disloyal.”

Sebastian was paled as he stared at Krane’s face, too afraid to look away, he didn't want to hear Reese speak to him as Krane again, call him son again. He was remembering everything he’d ever told his therapist, and as it came out of Reese's mouth he felt his stomach twist: about the nights he couldn't move because he felt that by going on he was betraying the man who'd never cared about him, but who he wanted to care about him because he wanted someone to care about him, and the second he had that in Chase and Bree and Adam, he had to go and fuck it up. All these things that he’d said in confidence, in his worst moments, and now were no longer secret but being presented on a platter to people who hated him, who had every right to use this against him in every possible way and he'd deserve it, he'd deserve all of it, and he couldn’t stop her. He couldn't even stop listening, he was helpless, frozen to the spot as she tore into him again and again and again. Every time he thought she had run out of things to bring up, she brought something else up, something he'd forgotten about or something he'd shoved so far back it was like a punch getting it pulled forward again. 

Then she shifted and for a moment Sebastian believed that maybe she was done, that maybe it was over, but then she became Chase and Sebastian almost sobbed, because he knew what she was going to bring up. “And you couldn’t even be loyal to him, despite your feelings, you betrayed him, Sebastian, you betrayed me, over and over again.”

Sebastian tasted salt and blood, trying to separate Chase from the words that were coming out of Reese’s mouth. He couldn't breathe, he just wanted it to stop. Every part of him hurt and he couldn't do anything. Then Kaz stepped in between them.

“Back off, Reese, like you said, let’s just let him go.”

Reese turned back into herself. “Oh, but it’s just so fun to make him squirm! And we haven’t even scratched the surface of what I have yet, so many pages and pages of notes!"

Sebastian made a noise that sounded like he was being choked, he felt like he was being choked. He felt like he'd been torn apart already and she hadn't even scratched the surface.

"Will you just shut up!” Chase exclaimed.

Sebastian flinched and blinked back his tears, but then he saw that both Bree and Chase were glaring, not at him, but at Reese.

“Really Chase? Standing up for the man who betrayed you? Who betrayed you all?”

“He made a stupid decision based on anger,” Bree said, “We’ve all been there. He served his sentence and what matters now is what he chooses to do.”

Sebastian slumped, air moving in and out a slightly easier. They weren't agreeing with her. It was going to stop. He needed it to stop.

Reese rolled her eyes. “Well I guess you’re off the hook Sebastian, Bree and Chase don’t like to have any fun.”

“No," Skylar said, “They’re just not cruel.” She moved fast and punched Reese hard in the chest, starting the fight.

Sebastian was sped to the side of the room by Bree, because even though he still had a bionic infrastructure, without a chip he was still a Normo, breakable, and for the most part, useless. He stayed there, drumming his fingers. He couldn't help, but he wanted to, he needed something to do, because he couldn't stop moving. Way too much of his soul had been bared, and he couldn’t even process it because every nerve was on fire with adrenaline that he hadn’t felt in years.

“I think they’re gone,” Bree said.

Sebastian looked up to see the Elite Force standing in the middle of the room, most of them, not very inconspicuously, staring at him.

“Thank you,” Sebastian said, pushing himself shakily to his feet. He wanted to get out, run around until he stopped shaking, run to a different city, change his name, never be fucking associated with Sebastian again because now Sebastian was tied to those secrets. “I’ll get out of your hair now.”

But Chase grabbed his arm, and Sebastian flinched the adrenaline still racing through his system. Was Chase mad? Of course, he was mad, but if he was mad why would he even bother with the rescue, just leave him in the chair to rot, dick, it was rude to give Sebastian hope of leaving bad decisions in the past.

“Are you okay?” That was not what he had expected, but the Elite Force actually looked concerned.

“Yeah, yeah,” Sebastian swallowed hard, he didn’t want their pity. “I’m fine, I just need to go-” He took a gasping breath, had he been breathing? It didn’t sound like it. “I have somewhere-

Chase pulled him, hesitantly into a hug. It wasn’t forceful, like Adam’s hugs, but an option, Sebastian knew if he pulled away Chase would let him. But Sebastian didn’t pull away, it took a moment but he relaxed into Chase’s grip.

“Breathe with me,” Chase said, and Sebastian did, feeling Chase’s chest rise against his own. His shaking slowed and his head cleared, of course with the clearing came the acute focus on Chase hugging him despite what they all had just learned.

After his breathing had been normal for a few moments, Sebastian pulled away and coughed awkwardly. Unsure what to say, but Chase did.

“Adrenaline will do that to you, we figured pretty quick we hadn’t trained the students for that shit.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “You swear now?”

“We were all surprised,” Bree told him. Her smile was far from what it had been back at the Academy, but it was there, not a glare that told him she was going to rip his throat out, but a smile that said he could keep his organs where they were.

“Why don’t you three go out to dinner?” Oliver suggested. “We can handle cleanup and you three can catch up.”

“Oh, I don’t know if-“ Chase cut Sebastian off.

“Your offer to talk still on the table?”

Sebastian nodded. “Yeah, of course.”

“Then come on, there’s a good pizza place about a few minutes away,” Bree said. And they went to go eat, Sebastian didn’t think things would ever be the way they were at the Academy, too much had happened, too much betrayal and anger, but if every now and then they invited him over for movie night, if Chase let him use Mission Command every now and then for the scraps of ideas that remained from his bionic intelligence, and past that sometimes let him help on missions; if they let Sebastian redeem himself, slowly, reminding him that if they forgave Douglas they could forgive anyone, well, Sebastian was okay with that.

**Author's Note:**

> **Invasion of Privacy/Humiliation: Reese goes through Sebastian's therapy files and tells everyone their contents.  
> Please be careful with this one. 
> 
> Please don't be mean. Thank you for reading.


End file.
